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We have been contacted by a few people recently who told us that they have been deceived by the Government and consequently they lost their Immediate Roadside Prohibition (IRP) review hearing. They're angry and they want to do something about it. And we're sympathetic.
What these people are telling us is that they received a 90-day IRP and they wanted to dispute it because they felt that they were not guilty or that the police made mistakes that should cause the prohibition to be lifted. Doing their due diligence, they researched the matters on the internet, including the BC Government website.
The...

Quite often using Alco-Sensor IV DWF Screeners in our office we obtained false positives for alcohol. What happens is that a drinking subject blows, and quickly thereafter a non-drinking subject is tested and the unit provides a reading indicating some amount of alcohol. In other words, the unit is either malfunctioning or it has retained alcohol in the sample chamber.
The problem with this is that the alcohol from the later sample will simply combine with the alcohol from the first sample. And the danger is that a person who has had nothing to drink may be called a liar for...

We've been holding back on an IRP update for a few weeks because it's important to protect the position of our clients. Many people follow our blog, including people who lament and oppose our efforts to expose the system. So we try to balance the need to keep our cards close and keep people informed. And our supporters need to recognize that we are advocates, and we try to be careful to use what we know to the greatest effect. Which means sometimes we wait to see how things are playing out, sometimes we speak out right away and sometimes...

As criminal lawyers we have seen many cases where people have been treated terribly by the police. We've come to see this as standard police procedure, although any police force would understandable deny this.
However, from time to time it gets on the news, usually when there’s someone who manages to catch the police in the act with a video camera. Such was the case late last week when a member of Vancouver's finest, i.e. the Vancouver Police Department, gratuitously kicked a suspect in the chest.
You can watch the video on CBC's website. You should watch the video.
The suspect is handcuffed,...

Although we spend a lot of time defending IRPs and driving prohibitions, we are in fact trial lawyers. Much of our work takes place in court. As criminal lawyers we often negotiate plea agreements to get the best result for our clients. When a plea bargain is not in the best interests of our client or is unavailable, we gear up to go to court with the goal of succeeding at trial.
This summer we've had some interesting cases, both because of the facts of the cases and the surrounding circumstances.
If you've followed IRP law you know about the Spencer decision....

We're getting a reputation in British Columbia, but it isn't for our mountains, our pipeline flip-flopping premier or our deflating real estate bubble. It turns out that we are now being viewed as The Land That Justice Forgot. The Immediate Roadside Prohibition scheme (IRP or ARP scheme - whatever you want to call it) is making us look like some backward backwater where the Charter of Rights is yet to be proclaimed.
In our careful search of newspapers across Canada, not a single editorial has supported the BC Government in its quest to eliminate the Charter Rights of drivers. But regularly...

When the new version of the IRP scheme came out mid June, one of the first undisclosed changes the Government also brought in was a document to hide ASD malfunctions. For over a year we identified never-ending ASD problems. To counter the evidence we disclosed, they came up with a document to hide the problems while ostensibly providing disclosure.
The document, called a Certificate of Qualified ASD Calibrator, was created so that in future legal challenges to the IRP scheme the Government can claim to be providing people with a fair hearing with disclosure about the ASDs used. The document records...

One question we are often asked is why we defend drunk driving cases. As lawyers we take on all sorts of different cases, from serious drug charges to personal injury cases, the occasional contract dispute and discipline proceedings when a professional is facing sanctions from a regulatory body. But more than anything we defend driving matters, and many drunk driving cases, i.e. DUIs. And there are reasons for that. For me there is a specific reason.
In 1984 I was a teenager and for a few months I lived at 14232 Ravine Drive in Edmonton. One warm evening I was sitting...

When Sivia was argued the Government did not put forward evidence of a drunk driving expert, i.e. a forensic toxicologist. We weren't surprised. There are dozens of experts in the effects of alcohol, the chemistry of alcohol and the equipment used to measure alcohol concentration who work in labs for the RCMP across Canada. Many of them testify in court every day. But in the Sivia hearing the Government did not call any of them as witnesses, or present an affidavit from any of them. Why?
The main reason it seems is that they could not find a toxicologist to say...

If you received an Immediate Roadside Prohibition for Fail and you're wondering how it could happen bearing in mind how little you had to drink, the answer may be that you had some alcohol in your mouth.
One of the main problems with Fail IRPs is that none of the roadside breathalyzers can differentiate alcohol that is expelled from your lungs from alcohol that may be in your mouth. The simple fact is that if you have any alcohol in your mouth the reading will be elevated and not accurately reflect your actual blood-alcohol content.
Approved Screening Devices (ASDs) used at the...

Acumen Law Corporation is a Vancouver Criminal Law Firm with its head office in downtown Vancouver, as well as law offices beside the courthouse in Richmond, in downtown Victoria and just off the Fraser Highway in Surrey, British Columbia.

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Sometimes you may find yourself in difficult situations and not be able to defuse the situation without going to court.